President's Remarks at Victory 2002 Event
Remarks by the President to the Republican Party of Texas -
Victory 2002 and Cornyn for Senate Luncheon
Hyatt Regency Hotel
Dallas, Texas

12:15 P.M. CST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you
all. Please be seated; thanks.

Everybody in Crawford says hello -- (laughter) -- starting with
Laura. (Applause.) She is doing a fabulous
day. I tell people it's because she's from Midland,
Texas. (Applause.) But I send her
best. She's got a lot of friends here. And the
country now realizes why I asked her to marry
me. (Laughter.) A lot of people are still
wondering why she said, yes, but nevertheless, she's doing great and
she sends her love. And I want to thank you all for coming
here today, as well. (Applause.)

It is my honor to come and campaign for the next United States
Senator from the State of Texas. (Applause.) I'm
going to miss Phil Gramm. He is a close
friend. He is a strong, strong advocate for principles that
are sound for our freedom. He has been a great United States
Senator from Texas. (Applause.)

I was disappointed he chose not to run again. I
understand, but I was disappointed. But my disappointment
waned when I realized my friend John Cornyn was running to take his
place. (Applause.) I know John. I've
seen him work. I've seen him in action. I've not
only seen his as a campaigner, but somebody who does in office what he
said he is going to do. There is no question in my mind that
he can do the job and bring a standard of excellence to the United
States Senate. And there's no question in my mind we need
him in the United States Senate, to make sure our agenda moves
forward. (Applause.)

I want to thank Bill and Rita Clements for being here. I
like to call Bill the pathfinder for Republican
governors. (Applause.) I appreciate my friend,
Henry Bonilla, for taking on the Texas Victory 2002
committee. It is important we send Henry back to the United
States House of Representatives. (Applause.) I
know Kay Granger from Fort Worth is here, and I appreciate so very much
working with Kay. She is a great friend, a reliable voice
for sound and common sense policy in Washington, D.C. I'm so
glad to see Greg Abbott, the next Attorney General of Texas
here. (Applause.)

I know that Wallace Jefferson and Mike Schneider are
here. Thank you all for coming. I know that Jeb
Hensarling, the next United States Congressman from the 5th
Congressional District, is here as well. Congratulations on
your primary win, Jeb. Charles Matthews is
here. Our party chairman Susan Weddington is
here. I want to thank Susan for her long-time service to
the Republican Party of Texas. I see Tommy Craddick here,
other members of the House and the State Senate. I miss
you. I wish I could count on your votes in Washington, like
I could have in Austin. But thanks for coming by to see your
old buddy. And thank you all for being here, as well.

This is an important election for Texas. And it's an
important election for the country. We've got to have a man
like John Cornyn representing our state in Washington. And
there are a lot of reasons why.

First, we've got to get good, conservative judges appointed to the
bench and approved by the United States
Senate. (Applause.) I want people on the bench
who don't try to use their position to legislate from the
bench. We want people to interpret the law, not try to make
law and write law. And I sent such a man up from Mississippi
the other day -- a good, honest, honorable man, who had been approved
unanimously by the United States Senate earlier -- and, yet, did not
get a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.

We need people like John Cornyn in the United States Senate, who
will work with the White House to have a solid judiciary, to make sure
that the judges do what they're supposed to do in the United States and
not overstep their bounds. (Applause.)

We need somebody like John, who is going to take a tough position,
tough stand on issues like energy. I don't need to be
telling my friends in Texas that we've got an energy problem, but we
do. We need to do a better job of conservation, no question
about it. And we will. As technology advances, we
will conserve more.

But for the sake of our national security, we need to be finding
more energy at home. We need to be less dependent on foreign
sources of crude oil. John Cornyn will be a steady vote and
a steady voice when it comes to good, sound energy policy in
Washington, D.C. (Applause.)

You know, one of the interesting issues that always faces us in
Washington is what to do with the people's money. The
tendency, of course, is to over-promise and then
overspend. We need fiscal sanity in Washington. I
want to thank Phil and his leadership on the issue of
taxation. As you may remember -- I think it was in this room
-- I said, if you give me a chance to be your President, I will make
sure the people get to keep a substantial amount of their own
money. I reminded people that we weren't dealing with the
government's money, we were dealing with the people's
money. John understands that.

And we passed tax relief in Washington, exactly at the right
time. You see, we understand -- Phil understands, I
understand, and John understands -- that if you let people keep more of
their own money, they will demand more goods and
services. And if they demand more goods and services,
somebody will help produce those goods and services. And if
somebody else produces those goods and services, it makes it easier for
somebody to find work.

And so we cut the taxes on the people. Right in the
middle of a recession, we cut the taxes, which is the right thing to
do. Now, there are some people up there who read a different
textbook. See, they advocate raising your
taxes. They get caught in that Washington
trap. They forget whose money we're
spending. John Cornyn understands we spend the people's
money, not the government money, and he'll be a reliable ally when it
comes to making sure that tax relief that we passed is permanent and
long-lasting and real.

And I'll tell you an issue that's coming up where we're going to
need his support, if they don't get it done this year. We
put the death tax on its way to
extinction. (Applause.) But because of a quirk --
but because of a Senate rule, after 10 years, that death tax can come
back to life. I proposed, Phil has proposed, that we make
the death tax -- getting rid of the death tax
permanent. I'll guarantee he'll vote for
that. (Applause.)

You know, when I was campaigning in Chicago, in the general
election, somebody said, would you ever deficit spend? I
said, well, only if we were at war, or there was a national emergency,
or we were in a recession. Little did I realize we'd get the
trifecta. (Laughter.)

We've dealt with the recession with good fiscal policy, a budgeting
process that holds the line on spending, and at the same time, let
people have more of their own money back. And it's important
for us to make sure that those actions we took to stimulate the private
sector remain in place.

And we're also dealing with the other two issues. Today
I had the opportunity of going to the Dallas Fire Department's training
center, to thank Texas Task Force 1, for going to New York City on
September the 16th, to be there at Ground Zero to help rescue those who
were trapped in the rubble.

I went by there because I wanted to highlight one of the key
initiatives in the homeland defense strategy, which is to make sure
we've got a coordinated effort with our first responders, to respond to
any emergency that may come up from this point forward.

The reason I bring that up to you is that my most important job as
your President is to defend the homeland; is to protect American people
from further attacks. Not only are we working on a first
responders initiative, we've got a good, fine bioterrorism initiative
as to how to respond if there were a bioterrorist attack.

We're beefing-up our border security. It's important for
this country to understand who's coming in and who's going
out. And we know we've got a lot of work to do with the
INS. It's a troubled agency that needs reform, and we will
reform it. (Applause.)

I want to assure you all that we're doing a much better job in
Washington of coordinating intelligence and information between
jurisdictional boundaries, and we're sharing information in a much
better way with state and local authorities. If we get any
kind of hint that there's an al Qaeda cell in America, we're moving on
it. If we get any whisper that somebody wants to harm us
again, I can assure you we're moving quickly.

Every morning in the Oval Office, George Tenet of the CIA comes in
and gives me a briefing about what he knows. And then the
Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, comes in. I ask him
every single day, what do you know and what have you done about
it? If you've got any hint, Mr. Director, for the good of
the American people, I want you and over 4,000 agents dedicated to
protecting the homeland to move quickly.

I'm proud of the way we're responding as a nation. The
nation is on alert. We're prepared. Because we
understand that we fight an enemy that are nothing but a bunch of
cold-blooded killers. They can't be
rehabilitated. They hate what America stands
for. They hate our religious tolerance. They hate
our freedom of speech. They hate freedom of the
press. They despise freedom. They despise
freedom.

And, therefore, the best way to secure the homeland, and the only
way to secure the homeland for the long-term is to hunt 'em down one by
one and bring 'em to justice and that's exactly what I intend to
do. (Applause.)

I don't know what was on their mind when they attacked
America. They must have thought we were so self-absorbed and
materialistic that all we were going to do was file a
lawsuit. (Laughter.) But they found out we think
differently here in this country. They now know we love
freedom, and we will defend our freedom with all our might.

I laid down a doctrine early. It said either you're with
us or you're against us. And, fortunately, most of the world
said they're with us. And we've put together a vast
coalition of freedom-loving nations to defend not only America, but our
friends and allies.

I also said that if you harbor a terrorist, if you hide a terrorist
and feed a terrorist, you are just as guilty as the murderers who
killed thousands of innocent Americans. And the Taliban
found out exactly what we meant. I unleashed the mighty
United States military and other coalition forces and, thanks to the
bravery of U.S. soldiers, the Taliban has been routed out of
existence. (Applause.)

It is so important for young Americans to know that our nation does
not seek revenge. We seek justice. And we'll do
whatever it takes to defend freedom. We view freedom as
non-negotiable. It is precious.

It's also important for Americans to understand that we went into
Afghanistan not as a conquering nation, but as
liberators. Last Saturday, many young girls went to school
for the first time in Afghanistan, thanks to the United States of
America. (Applause.)

We've got a lot more to do. And that's what I want to
share with you, and that's what John understands. Even
though we've upheld the doctrine if you hide a terrorist you're just as
bad as a terrorist, there are other countries that might not get the
message. And there are a lot of people still on the loose
that want to hurt America.

And that's why I've submitted the largest increase in the defense
budget during the last 20 years. Because here's what I
know: if we put our soldiers at risk, they deserve the best
equipment, the best training, the best pay. Oh, some of them
are talking in Washington about it's too high a
price. Listen, there is never too high a price for freedom,
as far as I'm' concerned. (Applause.)

And I submitted this budget because it's a clear signal to the
American people and, just as importantly, to our enemy, that we're in
this for the long pull. I have no calendar on my desk that
says this must end by a certain date and I'll feel
better. It doesn't matter how long it takes, as far as I'm
concerned. So long as I'm the President, we will treat these
killers as international terrorists and get them on the run and keep
them on the run until we bring each and every one of them to
justice. And that's what we're going to
do. (Applause.)

This fight on the war against terror is larger than any single
individual or any single network. There are other nightmare
scenarios that our nation must be worried about. One such
scenario would be for a terrorist killer organization to team up with
some of the world's worst leaders who harbor and develop the world's
worst weapons.

I've told this to a lot of world leaders, that I'm just not going
to let that happen. History has called us into
action. We can't look back after our time in Washington,
D.C. and say, how come we let this happen? For the good of
our children and our grandchildren, we must deny the world's most
dangerous leaders from having and harboring the world's most dangerous
weapons. (Applause.)

We'll be deliberate; we'll be thoughtful; we will consult with our
friends and allies. But when I said, axis of evil, I meant
it. (Applause.)

I believe that out of this incredible evil that has been done to
our country will come great good, though. I
do. When the United States remains firm and strong and
determined, we can achieve peace in parts of the world where people
never thought peace could happen.

Oh, I know the Middle East is -- looks like there will never be
peace, but I can assure you we're not giving up. We're not
going to let murderers disrupt a march to peace. My heart
breaks for those who were celebrating Passover in the hotel, when a
cold-blooded killer came in and destroyed innocent life, to derail the
attempts of peaceful-loving people for coming together.

But they're not going to stop us as a nation for longing for peace,
and working for peace. And the best way to achieve the peace
is to be strong and steadfast against
terror. (Applause.) I see a peaceful world, I
do. The rest of the world watches us very
carefully. I like to say, if the United States blinks,
they'll go to sleep. We're not going to blink.

I also believe at home we can achieve incredible good,
too. People often say, well, what can I do to help in the
war against terror? My answer is, love a neighbor like you'd
like to be loved yourself. If you want to fight evil, do
some good. I look around the room and see a lot of my
friends who I know have been doing good for a long, long number of
years here in Texas. And I want to thank you for
that. But it's important you keep doing it. It's
important you give of your time and your money to help people in need.

This nation is based upon some great principles: our
love for freedom, our love for democracy. But our real
strength is the hearts and souls of the American
people. We're e a tough nation, we're a courageous
nation. But we're also a compassionate
nation. And in order to fight terror, in order to stand
squarely in the face of evil, we must help people in
need. Just walking across the street to see a shut-in, and
saying, I care about you, is part of fighting
evil. Mentoring a child -- telling your own child you love
him every single day, going to a church or a synagogue or a mosque, and
developing a program to help feed the hungry or clothe those who need
clothes and help, that's all part of not only defining our nation, but
fighting against evil.

And that's why I'm such an optimistic soul, because not only do I
know that we've got what it takes to achieve the peace -- we've got the
determination, the will and the strength to have a more peaceful
world. I know we've got the heart and compassion to show the
world the true definition of our nation.

And it's happened. It's the gathering momentum of
millions of acts of kindness and compassion which show the world the
true worth of the greatest country on the face of the earth.